-----------
git-svn is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
It is not to be confused with gitlink:git-svnimport[1], which is
-read-only and geared towards tracking multiple branches.
+read-only.
git-svn was originally designed for an individual developer who wants a
bidirectional flow of changesets between a single branch in Subversion
and an arbitrary number of branches in git. Since its inception,
git-svn has gained the ability to track multiple branches in a manner
-similar to git-svnimport; but it cannot (yet) automatically detect new
-branches and tags like git-svnimport does.
+similar to git-svnimport.
git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
--
'init'::
- Creates an empty git repository with additional metadata
- directories for git-svn. The Subversion URL must be specified
- as a command-line argument. Optionally, the target directory
- to operate on can be specified as a second argument. Normally
- this command initializes the current directory.
+ Initializes an empty git repository with additional
+ metadata directories for git-svn. The Subversion URL
+ may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
+ URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
+ directory to operate on can be specified as a second
+ argument. Normally this command initializes the current
+ directory.
+
+-T<trunk_subdir>;;
+--trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
+-t<tags_subdir>;;
+--tags=<tags_subdir>;;
+-b<branches_subdir>;;
+--branches=<branches_subdir>;;
+ These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
+ these flags can point to a relative repository path
+ (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
+ (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags)
+--no-metadata;;
+ Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--use-svm-props;;
+ Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--use-svnsync-props;;
+ Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--rewrite-root=<URL>;;
+ Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--username=<USER>;;
+ For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
+ https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
+ transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
+ the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
+--prefix=<prefix>;;
+ This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
+ to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
+ specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
+ trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
+ argument if that is what you want. This is useful if
+ you wish to track multiple projects that share a common
+ repository.
'fetch'::
-
-Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion URL we are
-tracking. refs/remotes/git-svn will be updated to the
-latest revision.
-
-Note: You should never attempt to modify the remotes/git-svn
-branch outside of git-svn. Instead, create a branch from
-remotes/git-svn and work on that branch. Use the 'dcommit'
-command (see below) to write git commits back to
-remotes/git-svn.
-
-See '<<fetch-args,Additional Fetch Arguments>>' if you are interested in
-manually joining branches on commit.
+ Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
+ tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
+ .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
+ argument.
+
+'clone'::
+ Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
+ directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
+ or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
+ and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
+ 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
+ '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
+ command will be able to update revisions without affecting
+ the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
+ to update the working tree with the latest changes.
+
+'rebase'::
+ This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
+ and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
+
+This works similarly to 'svn update' or 'git-pull' except that
+it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
+'git-merge' for ease of dcommit-ing with git-svn.
+
+This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
+accepts. However '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
+[svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
+
+Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
+and have no uncommitted changes.
+
+-l;;
+--local;;
+ Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
+ last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
'dcommit'::
Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
alternative to HEAD.
This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
cleaner, more linear history.
++
+--no-rebase;;
+ After committing, do not rebase or reset.
+--
'log'::
This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
++
+The following features from `svn log' are supported:
++
+--
+--revision=<n>[:<n>];;
+ is supported, non-numeric args are not:
+ HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
+-v/--verbose;;
+ it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
+ output in svn log, but reasonably close.
+--limit=<n>;;
+ is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
+ merged/excluded commits
+--incremental;;
+ supported
+--
++
+New features:
++
+--
+--show-commit;;
+ shows the git commit sha1, as well
+--oneline;;
+ our version of --pretty=oneline
+--
++
+Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
- The following features from `svn log' are supported:
-
- --revision=<n>[:<n>] - is supported, non-numeric args are not:
- HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
- -v/--verbose - it's not completely compatible with
- the --verbose output in svn log, but
- reasonably close.
- --limit=<n> - is NOT the same as --max-count,
- doesn't count merged/excluded commits
- --incremental - supported
-
- New features:
-
- --show-commit - shows the git commit sha1, as well
- --oneline - our version of --pretty=oneline
-
- Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
+--
+'find-rev'::
+ When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
+ corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
+ tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
+ tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
'set-tree'::
You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
independently of git-svn functions.
-'rebuild'::
- Not a part of daily usage, but this is a useful command if
- you've just cloned a repository (using gitlink:git-clone[1]) that was
- tracked with git-svn. Unfortunately, git-clone does not clone
- git-svn metadata and the svn working tree that git-svn uses for
- its operations. This rebuilds the metadata so git-svn can
- resume fetch operations. A Subversion URL may be optionally
- specified at the command-line if the directory/repository you're
- tracking has moved or changed protocols.
-
'show-ignore'::
Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
directories. The output is suitable for appending to
repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
The -r<revision> option is required for this.
-'graft-branches'::
- This command attempts to detect merges/branches from already
- imported history. Techniques used currently include regexes,
- file copies, and tree-matches). This command generates (or
- modifies) the $GIT_DIR/info/grafts file. This command is
- considered experimental, and inherently flawed because
- merge-tracking in SVN is inherently flawed and inconsistent
- across different repositories.
-
-'multi-init'::
- This command supports git-svnimport-like command-line syntax for
- importing repositories that are laid out as recommended by the
- SVN folks. This is a bit more tolerant than the git-svnimport
- command-line syntax and doesn't require the user to figure out
- where the repository URL ends and where the repository path
- begins.
-
--T<trunk_subdir>::
---trunk=<trunk_subdir>::
--t<tags_subdir>::
---tags=<tags_subdir>::
--b<branches_subdir>::
---branches=<branches_subdir>::
- These are the command-line options for multi-init. Each of
- these flags can point to a relative repository path
- (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
- (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags)
-
---prefix=<prefix>
- This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended to the
- names of remotes. The prefix does not automatically include a
- trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the argument if
- that is what you want. This is useful if you wish to track
- multiple projects that share a common repository.
-
-'multi-fetch'::
- This runs fetch on all known SVN branches we're tracking. This
- will NOT discover new branches (unlike git-svnimport), so
- multi-init will need to be re-run (it's idempotent).
-
--
OPTIONS
-------
--
---shared::
+--shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
--template=<template_directory>::
Only used with the 'init' command.
These are passed directly to gitlink:git-init[1].
-r <ARG>::
--revision <ARG>::
-Only used with the 'fetch' command.
+Used with the 'fetch' command.
-Takes any valid -r<argument> svn would accept and passes it
-directly to svn. -r<ARG1>:<ARG2> ranges and "{" DATE "}" syntax
-is also supported. This is passed directly to svn, see svn
-documentation for more details.
+This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
+to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
+$NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
-This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch.
+This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
+but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
+and lost.
-::
--stdin::
Make git-svn less verbose.
--repack[=<n>]::
---repack-flags=<flags>
- These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
- with many revisions.
+--repack-flags=<flags>::
+
+These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
+with many revisions.
- --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
- to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
- 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
+--repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
+to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
+1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
- --repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
+--repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
+[verse]
config key: svn.repack
config key: svn.repackflags
-s<strategy>::
--strategy=<strategy>::
-These are only used with the 'dcommit' command.
+These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
----------------
--
--b<refname>::
---branch <refname>::
-Used with 'fetch', 'dcommit' or 'set-tree'.
-
-This can be used to join arbitrary git branches to remotes/git-svn
-on new commits where the tree object is equivalent.
-
-When used with different GIT_SVN_ID values, tags and branches in
-SVN can be tracked this way, as can some merges where the heads
-end up having completely equivalent content. This can even be
-used to track branches across multiple SVN _repositories_.
-
-This option may be specified multiple times, once for each
-branch.
-
-config key: svn.branch
-
-i<GIT_SVN_ID>::
--id <GIT_SVN_ID>::
-This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). See the
-section on
-'<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
-for more information on using GIT_SVN_ID.
+This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
+allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
+when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
+no longer require this switch as an argument.
+
+-R<remote name>::
+--svn-remote <remote name>::
+ Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
+ this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
+ Default: "svn"
--follow-parent::
This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
- descended from.
+ descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
+ --no-follow-parent to disable it.
config key: svn.followparent
---no-metadata::
- This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
+--
+CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
+------------------------
+--
+
+svn.noMetadata::
+svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
- With this, you lose the ability to use the rebuild command. If
- you ever lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, you won't be
- able to fetch again, either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
+This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
- The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using this,
- either.
+If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
+be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
+either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
-config key: svn.nometadata
+The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
+this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
+option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
---
+svn.useSvmProps::
+svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
-COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS
----------------------
---
+This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
+mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
---upgrade::
-Only used with the 'rebuild' command.
+If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
+that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
+The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
+to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
+introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
+URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
+messages.
-Run this if you used an old version of git-svn that used
-"git-svn-HEAD" instead of "remotes/git-svn" as the branch
-for tracking the remote.
+svn.useSvnsyncProps::
+svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
+ Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
+ of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
+ later.
---ignore-nodate::
-Only used with the 'fetch' command.
+svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
+ This allows users to create repositories from alternate
+ URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
+ server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
+ the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
+ metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
-By default git-svn will crash if it tries to import a revision
-from SVN which has '(no date)' listed as the date of the revision.
-This is repository corruption on SVN's part, plain and simple.
-But sometimes you really need those revisions anyway.
+Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
+options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
+*must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
+and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
-If supplied git-svn will convert '(no date)' entries to the UNIX
-epoch (midnight on Jan. 1, 1970). Yes, that's probably very wrong.
-SVN was very wrong.
+Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
+section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
--
-Basic Examples
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+BASIC EXAMPLES
+--------------
Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Initialize a repo (like git init):
- git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
-# Fetch remote revisions:
- git-svn fetch
-# Create your own branch to hack on:
- git checkout -b my-branch remotes/git-svn
-# Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
-# automatically updating your working HEAD:
+# Clone a repo (like git clone):
+ git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
+# Enter the newly cloned directory:
+ cd trunk
+# You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
+ git branch
+# Do some work and commit locally to git:
+ git commit ...
+# Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
+# latest changes in SVN:
+ git-svn rebase
+# Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
+# as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
git-svn dcommit
-# Something is committed to SVN, rebase the latest into your branch:
- git-svn fetch && git rebase remotes/git-svn
# Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
(complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
-See also:
-'<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Initialize a repo (like git init):
- git-svn multi-init http://svn.foo.org/project \
- -T trunk -b branches -t tags
-# Fetch remote revisions:
- git-svn multi-fetch
-# Create your own branch of trunk to hack on:
- git checkout -b my-trunk remotes/trunk
-# Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
-# automatically updating your working HEAD:
- git-svn dcommit -i trunk
-# Something has been committed to trunk, rebase the latest into your branch:
- git-svn multi-fetch && git rebase remotes/trunk
-# Append svn:ignore settings of trunk to the default git exclude file:
- git-svn show-ignore -i trunk >> .git/info/exclude
-# Check for new branches and tags (no arguments are needed):
- git-svn multi-init
+# Clone a repo (like git clone):
+ git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
+# View all branches and tags you have cloned:
+ git branch -r
+# Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
+# with the appropriate name):
+ git reset --hard remotes/trunk
+# You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
+# of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
-use 'git rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
+use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
previous commits in SVN.
Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
with Subversion is cumbersome as a result. git-svn does not do
automated merge/branch tracking by default and leaves it entirely up to
-the user on the git side.
-
-[[tracking-multiple-repos]]
-TRACKING MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES OR BRANCHES
-------------------------------------------
-Because git-svn does not care about relationships between different
-branches or directories in a Subversion repository, git-svn has a simple
-hack to allow it to track an arbitrary number of related _or_ unrelated
-SVN repositories via one git repository. Simply use the --id/-i flag or
-set the GIT_SVN_ID environment variable to a name other other than
-"git-svn" (the default) and git-svn will ignore the contents of the
-$GIT_DIR/svn/git-svn directory and instead do all of its work in
-$GIT_DIR/svn/$GIT_SVN_ID for that invocation. The interface branch will
-be remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID, instead of remotes/git-svn. Any
-remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID branch should never be modified by the user outside
-of git-svn commands.
-
-[[fetch-args]]
-ADDITIONAL FETCH ARGUMENTS
---------------------------
-This is for advanced users, most users should ignore this section.
-
-Unfetched SVN revisions may be imported as children of existing commits
-by specifying additional arguments to 'fetch'. Additional parents may
-optionally be specified in the form of sha1 hex sums at the
-command-line. Unfetched SVN revisions may also be tied to particular
-git commits with the following syntax:
-
-------------------------------------------------
- svn_revision_number=git_commit_sha1
-------------------------------------------------
-
-This allows you to tie unfetched SVN revision 375 to your current HEAD:
-
-------------------------------------------------
- git-svn fetch 375=$(git-rev-parse HEAD)
-------------------------------------------------
-
-If you're tracking a directory that has moved, or otherwise been
-branched or tagged off of another directory in the repository and you
-care about the full history of the project, then you can use
-the --follow-parent option.
-
-------------------------------------------------
- git-svn fetch --follow-parent
-------------------------------------------------
+the user on the git side. git-svn does however follow copy
+history of the directory that it is tracking, however (much like
+how 'svn log' works).
BUGS
----
-We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Too difficult to
-map them since we rely heavily on git write-tree being _exactly_ the
-same on both the SVN and git working trees and I prefer not to clutter
-working trees with metadata files.
+We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
+properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
-the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Renamed and
-copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough for git to
-detect them.
+the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
+renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
+for git to detect them.
+
+CONFIGURATION
+-------------
+
+git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
+repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
+[remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
+arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
+and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
+configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
+listed below are allowed:
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+[svn-remote "project-a"]
+ url = http://server.org/svn
+ branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
+ tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
+ trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
+(left of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
+however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
+independent path componet (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
+type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
+should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
+gitlink:git-config[1]
SEE ALSO
--------